Slow Food Farm Tour

The Slow Food Farm Tour out of Baton Rouge is this Sunday....and we are in the line-up of four farms on the list. It is mid-March, and there's probably not a farm within spitting distance that has crops in the ground at this time...mostly because of late winter rains, but it is always so. On the other hand, there are three other farms on the tour, and one focuses on chickens, one on goats...the rains don't count for much in those cases...but for ACTUAL farming...mid March is a risky bet. It is what it is, as they say, and there are lots of interested people bitten by the Spring Fever bug who would like to spend a Sunday going from one farm to the other and just enjoying the fact that winter is over. yes! And for aspiring farmers or avid gardeners, it would tend to light a fire.Not that this is necessary...anyone who loves gardening is already out there digging around in the yard!
We have seedlings, and bees and a bio-deisel machine and artichokes in the greenhouse and many other interesting things to show people....so it will be fun.
 A pictorial update of sorts: Even though the ground has just been broken, there are lots or pre-garden activities afoot. And this spring is a very powerful one indeed....everything has just BOLTED out of the ground - simultaneously.
Will decided to start tearing down fences...ok, so they were old and were going to fall down anyway....and they were a pain of sorts..but I am still ambivalent...on the other hand, he killed himself digging up monkey grass and forming new flower beds and who can resist that? Then we got out there and planted 200 Gladiola bulbs in there so that will be fabulous! Just envision this.

 The clover is up, of course...all over the place- you just can't mow it all down - you must leave patches of it here and there...

 The Cilantro from last fall is blooming..and this, as well as the arugula and broccoli, should be left for the bees because let me tell you the bees are very, very busy,

 The mint has busted out of its little beds...I did get out there a month ago and tear out the nastiest weeds so that we didn't just have two weed gardens! Mid-March and we probably have enough to harvest. amazing.

 Artichoke update: so ok...one from the middle, then it rises up on a stalk then another...then another...pretty much all from the center of the plant - pretty wild, no?

 In this one bed..things that have appeared from last year's plantings...tarragon, catnip, lemon balm, ox-eyed daisies. This bed is, in actuality, probably 70 feet long. Not pictured but also present: hyssop, bee balm (well, wild bergamot - same thing only the native variety) and butterfly bushes.







I would show you pictures of the re-potted tomatoes but I have a new camera and, if I take a vertical picture, I cannot seem to get the rotated photo to post...just the sideways original! I guess i'll have to figure that out...we have literally thousands of seedlings in the greenhouse - new post - maybe tomorrow.

And here we have the first plowing of the garden. To you it may look like dirt. But no. It is the beginning.........be still my heart.